The Exchange of case making has been going on since the time of the DWM conglomerate before WW I. Whether the factories are linked by actual Financial arrangements ( as were almost all the European factories of both Guns and Ammo before WW I) or linked by a “Cartel” system ( legal or Illegal), The acquisition of particular calibres from a central supplier is commonplace…case in point in the 1970s-2000, at least, is European .22Hornet cases, made in turn, year by year, by factories such as Norma, RWS, Hirtenberger, etc, with the headstamps of the individual companies. Some calibres are not economical to run for several years, and so either one builds up a large stock,( with concurrent financial charges) or otherwise “Borrows” or “Buys” production from one of the competitors…not an uncommon practice in other industries as well.

Kynoch, at the end of its history, did the same using Raufoss (Norway) to make some of its Boxer cases, such as 7x57 Mauser. Winchester has its “soviet” type cartridge cases made by Sellier & Bellot, of the Czech Republic…and “PMC” of the USA, has cases made variously by PSD (Korea), Armscor (Philippines), South Africa,and others.

All of the best and Worst of Business practices can be seen in a History of the Ammunition Industry from the 1880s to the present.

It has been rumored for years that Norma made some of Lapua’s cases and vice versa but nobody seems to have any proof of it. Lapua do not polish their cases after annealing whereas Norma do, so it’s difficult to see any similarities.
Don’t care anyway, it’s all shooting ammo to me… :-)

The quality of Privi Partisan ammo generally but cases in particular has gone up drastically in the past couple of years.
They have gone a long way from being a manufacturer of quasi military surplus grade ammo intented to be sold as a way of earning Western currency. Now they are becoming a serious contender in the better end of the ammunition market. Much of their ammunition is now on a par with the offerings from the better known traditional names.

I’ve been buying their .303 ammunition for a while now.

It seems to mirror what is happening in the European car market with lots of the top German makes now being made in former Eastern Bloc countries.

Years ago I stood in Omaha and watched a massive freight train rolling through with my friend Jim Taylor who worked for Union Pacific. He said it was full of car components from Mexico bound for the production lines in Detroit. Its happening all over in every industry. Its hard for any European or American manufacturer to resist the appeal of cheap labour just beyond their borders.

Actually I don’t find that suprising at all. The demise of the Kynoch brand was a slow decline as demand for its core business of big game and associated calibres dwindled away and they weren’t seen as keeping up with the competition in the more popular calibres so market share was lost.
The parent company (IMI ) showed little interest in developing the business and was making its money from things like copper pipes which were much more profitable.
In that light the idea of them buying in cases from outside towards the end strikes me as quite possible although I have never read about it. You could almost imagine them getting to the stage where their case forming dies were wearing out and they couldn’t be bothered to replace them.
Finally, with a lot of their machinery having increased periods of idleness the company re-claimed the floor space for more productive business.

[quote=“VinceGreen”]The quality of Privi Partisan ammo generally but cases in particular has gone up drastically in the past couple of years.
They have gone a long way from being a manufacturer of quasi military surplus grade ammo intented to be sold as a way of earning Western currency. Now they are becoming a serious contender in the better end of the ammunition market. Much of their ammunition is now on a par with the offerings from the better known traditional names.[/quote]

I can only agree. The quality of items made by Privi is now equal to the best on the market. However, so are the prices, there’s nothing cheap about the Serbian manufacturer any more. The variety of calibers also helps to keep many surplus military firearms busy on the range and they’re to be congratulated for that.

For myself, I’ve recently switched from using a loading component made by Hornady and I find the Privi alternative to be at least as good, slightly cheaper and a lot more readily available. I still ‘batch weigh’ but it’s a redundant exercise as there is minimal variation. It’s all part of the voodoo of the process so I’m not about to change!